Patriots owner discusses Brady, Belichick, Gronkowski, Butler and more

Patriots owner Robert Kraft said Monday afternoon at the owners' meetings in Florida that he has met with quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick since the end of the season, and he downplayed any talk of dysfunction within the organization.

"Yes, we’ve had the meeting," he said. "Just to be clear … we have meetings all the time. We’re not a big bureaucratic organization. We’re a private company. We don’t have boards. We answer to the fans the best we can. We met. And I meet individually with each of them. But the thing I don’t know if it’s completely understood that Bill and Tom communicate a lot. They spend a lot of time communicating. The residual of this (Super Bowl) loss was really hard on everyone. But I sort of see that as a high class problem, because I sat in the stands when we were never in the playoffs at home for 20 odd years.

"That word tension … I’ve owned the team 24 seasons, and when you think about it, in any relationship — and I’ve had Bill as a head coach for 18 of those seasons. When I think about tension, I think about my fist year as an owner. I love Bill Parcells, but (with him as a coach), the players walked on eggshells. Maybe ownership did (too) as we went down the learning curve on how to get along. It was a great lesson for me to learn and train and to learn how to be a good owner -- and at the same time, learn how to work with a very strong and powerful coach. I think the so-called tension gets greater when you lose. We were 10-6 our first year. The second year, we were 5-11. That’s when we really had tension, our second year of ownership. I found that to be true. That’s a pejorative term. In any successful business or in a marriage, there are going to be things where you disagree. But hopefully, you come together and you have a meeting of the minds and you discuss things."

He also said that he has seen Rob Gronkowski inside the Patriots' facility this offseason, and said the dance-off between Gronkowski and Shaquille O'Neal bodes well for 2018.

"I saw him a few weeks ago come into the building after hours," Kraft said. "I should say one thing. When it comes to Gronk. I’ve met a lot of people in my life. I’ve never met anyone like him. (If the) good Lord let’s us come back as someone, I’ve said it before … he’s the most carefree, happy, upbeat kind of guy. I must say, I sort of got excited seeing him vault up on Shaq’s shoulders. For a guy that size, to be able to hop up on a 7-2 (guy), or whatever Shaq is, is pretty cool. So that speaks well about his potential athletic moves for the coming year."

Kraft also acknowledged that the fallout from the Super Bowl loss has been tough on the organization, but he referred to it as a “high-class problem. ... The fact that we lost and we lost the way we did, I still haven’t gotten over it.”

He added that if if Belichick made an error coaching “for the right reason” when it came to the Super Bowl and Malcolm Butler, he has no issue with it. As for Butler leaving, Kraft sounded a melancholy note.

"When it comes to Malcolm, I have a soft spot for him. I had hoped that he would be a Patriot for all his days. I think that play at the end of the Seattle Super Bowl is iconic, and I think he'll have a place in our fans' memory bank for the next 50 years. He's such a humble and nice young man. I was thinking about it, he was making, what, eight and a half dollars an hour at Popeye's and then seven months later he’s making the biggest play in the history of the Super Bowl, in my opinion?

"He’s a great guy — I’m just sorry it didn’t work out for him with us. But I’m happy he got the contract he got, and he’s doing it with some Patriots-related people in Tennessee in (Mike) Vrabel and the GM (Jon Robinson), so I wish him well, and I miss him."

Kraft was asked if he ever got an explanation as to why Butler didn't play in the Super Bowl.

"With my fan hat on, we come up with all sorts of reasons or things," he said. "But here’s the deal: We in New England are privileged, I believe, to have the greatest coach in the history of coaching, We’re involved in a number of businesses in our family, and we are in 95 countries in the world. We try to encourage to have good managers. We want them to be bold. We want them to take risks. And sometimes they work out. Sometimes they don’t.

"But I have faith in Bill as a coach. I don’t think there’s anyone who has the football knowledge and expertise combined with understanding personnel. No one can merge those two worlds. And he’s done pretty well for us over the last 18 years. So as a fan, I can question someone of the moves. As someone who is privileged to own this team, I encourage him to keep going with his instincts and do what he thinks is right. There’s no doubt in my mind, even if he made an error -- and this is true with any of our managers -- that if they’re doing it for the right reason, then I support it 100 percent. And I've never had one instance in the 18 years where Bill hasn't done what he believes is in the best interests of our team to help us win games."